They seem to specialize of late on selecting pitchmen with get-rich schemes, or get healthy some strange way, or even the lady who “helps you get organized”.
And all are run-of -the-mill inspirational speakers that are mainly selling their all-air books and tapes and video pitches and more speaking seminars.
Since it’s all so commercial, it’s like watching a government sponsored infomercial.
If they want a special on money management, it shouldn’t be a huckster with a self-written back story and a set of seminar tapes, but some retired official from the FTC or world bank or something. If the taxpayer is paying, it should be someone with verifiable credentials.
I saw one recently on PBS from that guy who wrote the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
It was your typical “how to get rich” sales pitch. 2 hours of common sense financial tips (invested money makes more than a savings account duh? Work smarter not harder duh?) and about 20 minutes of the old make money turning real estate generalities.
A glorified infomercial.
The guy was hawking his books but a portion or all procedes went to PBS.
Let me clear something up. Public television is NOT wallowing in taxpayer’s money. Less than 10% of their funding comes from the government, and congress recently cut the amount of money going to public TV and radio.
Those pledge drives are a pain in the butt, but they really do have to scrape for the money to keep the stations running. When they fall short, they have to sell time to hucksters. Yes, it hurts the dignity of public broadcasting. If it really bothers you, make a bigger pledge next time. Maybe you can underwrite a program about ethics.
What I really enjoy is when they pull out the really lame crap for pledge drives, then intercut it with their vague threats about how they won’t be able to show us this kind of thing in the future unless I cough up. “GOOD!” I cry, “good.”